Table of alchemical equipment and operations by Athanasius Kircher

This systematic table of alchemical operations and apparatus is found in Athanasius Kircher, Mundus Subterraneus... Amsterdam, 1665. Tomus II., page 260. Chymia is engaged about :Equipment Place Furnaces OPEN Proving Bellows COVERED Simple Calcining Cementing Reverberating Dissolving Ascending by the dry way in a flask in a sand bath by the wet way in a water bath Descending Compound Athanor With auxiliary furnaces Vessels HEATED made from special materials Glass Phials Circulating vessels Pelicans Double pelicans Philosophers Egg Mineral Metal Subtiliation in flasks in boiling vessels Fusion Moulds Casting cones

Earthenware made only of earthenware for fusion Ash cupels Crucibles not for fusion cementation box containing another vessel sand bath muffle furnace made from any materials Superior alembic closed alembic for cooking alembic with a beak Inferior alembic Cucurbites Retorts NOT HEATED for storing Receptacles Dishes for transferring Funnels Separating funnels Instruments Instruments for use in the fire Always necessary thin items gridiron iron rod or poker thick item shovel optional wooden dyoptra (for protecting the eyes against the fire) metallic iron plate Mortar Sources of heat Natural rays of the Sun Artificial simple for digesting Athanor Dung-bath for separating gently Ash-bath fiercely

indirect Sand-bath Bath of iron filings directly Coal fire flames mixed bath of sea water of dew

Operations Solution Calcination Corrosion by vapours by immersion in the wet way by Amalgamation by Precipitation in the dry way by Cementatio by Commixtion Ignition by Combustion by Reverberation by Incineration by Vitrification Dissolution SUBTILIATION by operations of short duration by Elevation in the dry way Sublimation in the wet way directly in an Alembic in a bladder obliquely through a side Retort by Descension by heat by cold Deliquium Filtration by operations of long duration Exaltation by Circulation by Ablution Digestion

by Putrefaction by Imbibition by Cohobation by Coration by Extraction LIQUEFACTION simple proving through Cineritium (ashes) through Antimony Coagulation by cold by heating